The Epithet
by Junebugsm
Summary: Callie learns that the mom's have a nickname for her and becomes insecure, but she's still not comfortable enough to just go and talk to them about it.
1. Chapter 1

**Callie learns that the mom's have a nickname for her and becomes insecure, but she's still not comfortable enough to just go and talk to them about it.**

(A random short story meant just for fun featuring Stef, Lena and Callie. It's a little silly but it's full of fluff. Takes place soon after Callie comes back from Girl's United. She's still a little insecure and doubts her place in the family. Also the nickname is kinda lame, I know, but I couldn't think of anything better.)

* * *

Callie quickly tiptoed up the stairs to her room and shut the door before sitting down on her bed, her shoulders slumped. _It's me, it's definitely me_ she thought to herself. She'd heard the term once before but never really thought about it. But this time she knew it was her because she was the only one with plans to visit her friends at the group home.

 _"What about LS?" Lena asked as she tore some lettuce for the salad._

 _"I'm dropping her off at Girl's United." Stef replied, setting the table. "I'll pick her up on my way home from work." She added._

Callie hadn't stayed any longer to listen to the rest. What she'd heard was enough to start a panic attack. Why were they calling her LS? What did it stand for? What did it mean?

Callie hadn't realized just how long she was lost in her own thoughts but she missed hearing Mariana enter the room.

"What's with you?" The younger girl asked when she walked in the door and noticed Callie sitting, staring blankly into space.

"Nothing." Callie answered, still trying to figure out what the letters meant. Her low self-esteem and insecurities kept her from even considering a positive term and so she kept listing anything derogatory that could be summed up with LS.

Mariana shrugged in disinterest as she continued on towards her closet to pick out what she wanted to wear for the day.

"What does LS stand for?" Callie suddenly asked, hoping her foster sister would know the meaning.

"I don't know, liposuction?" Mariana suggested, thinking it was a weirdest, most random question she'd heard.

"No, like if you called someone LS, what do you think it would mean?" Callie clarified.

"Um..." Mariana thought about it for a moment. "Loser?" She finally asked, more than said. "It's the only thing I could think of." She stated.

"Loser." Callie repeated in a dejected tone. Her heart sunk even more as she too realized that it didn't really sound like much else.

"Maybe not." Mariana pointed out. She still hadn't figured out what Callie was talking about so she wasn't entirely certain what the letters could mean but the first, and only, term she could come up with was loser.

"Right." Callie said though in her mind, Loser, seemed just about right.

* * *

"Where's Callie?" Stef asked when all the kids, minus Callie, had come downstairs for breakfast.

"Researching liposuction for losers?" Mariana questioned offhandedly as she dug her fork into a couple of pancakes to put onto her plate.

"What?" Stef asked in confusion as Lena and the other kids all paused their movements for a second at the weird statement their sister had just made.

"No idea." Mariana answered. "She asked me what LS meant and these were the two things I could think of." She explained, just as confused as the rest of the family around her.

"LS?" Stef and Lena both said at the same time. "What do you mean LS?" They asked their younger daughter.

"I have no clue." Mariana said. "She just asked me what I thought it meant and I suggested lipo but she was talking about a nickname or something so then I suggested loser." Mariana explained. "Maybe it's like a riddle or something." She concluded, not really interested in the mystery.

Stef and Lena shared a look over the heads of their oblivious children. They knew what the term meant but they didn't know that their foster daughter had heard about it and they certainly didn't like what she seemed to think it meant. Their little secret was obviously out and now they had to make sure that the girl they considered family understood what it meant and why it was a name given to her.

* * *

 **Any guesses on what it stands for?**


	2. Chapter 2

Stef and Lena stood at their foster daughter's bedroom door and found her in much the same way that Mariana had just a few minutes ago, only now she looked less concerned and more depressed for the word loser just kept rolling around in her head.

"LS huh?" Stef finally asked as she entered the room, drawing the girl out of her train of thought.

Callie looked up at them with sad, deflated look. "What does it mean?" She asked in a soft but desperate voice. She needed to know what it meant and why they would give her a secret name.

Stef and Lena walked further into the room and sat down on either side of the girl. Stef took Callie's hands in her own and turned the girl's body slightly to face her. Only then did she begin to explain.

"Mama came up with it." Stef began, holding on to the girl's hands tightly and giving them a little squeeze. "It means Little Stef." She said with a small smile.

"Little Stef?" Callie asked in confusion. "Why?" She questioned.

"Because you are a little Stef." Stef answered. "You are so much like me honey, it's unbelievable."

"Do you remember at Frank's funeral my mom talked to you about needing a family?" Lena continued the story.

Callie nodded. She remembered it clearly because she knew that Dana was right and she wanted nothing more than to have a family, _this_ family. Only, she didn't realize that this family wanted her just as much.

"After you'd gone back to Girl's United and the other kids were in bed we were talking and my mom was telling us what you'd said and we were discussing how to help you see that you already had family even though you were so determined to do it all on your own." Lena said. "That's when Sharon said it was just like Stef - never accepting help from anyone and trying to keep them at arm's length whenever you felt like your vulnerability would show."

"When my parents got divorced I was seventeen and I was so upset with them that I refused everything from them." Stef told the story. "I said it didn't matter if they were splitting up because I didn't need them. I wasn't a little kid and I could do it all on my own."

"Even now, there are so many things you do that remind me of Stef, it's like I'm getting a chance to see what Stef was like as a teenager." Lena explained, the same way she'd explained it the day she'd come up with the term.

"That's what mama said that day." Stef continued. "'Callie's my time machine to _Little Stef_.'" Stef quoted as she smiled at Lena.

"It's not a bad thing honey." Lena smiled at Callie, lifting her chin. "You only give nicknames to the people you love."

"You okay?" Stef asked, as she watched Callie try to process everything she'd just been told.

Callie nodded but remained silent. She didn't know what to say. It was such a relief to know what the letters meant and to know it wasn't something bad. Thinking back she should have known it wouldn't be a bad thing - they weren't those types of people. But still, with her history and her luck, it was always a possibility.

"What were you thinking love?" Stef asked, knowing Callie's thought process. "What did you think it meant?"

Callie just shrugged. She didn't want to admit it. She didn't want to have this conversation because it would undoubtedly lead to a lecture on how she as worth much more than she gave herself credit for and while they could say it until they were blue in the face - it was hard to let go of something you'd been told repeatedly for over six years. If they were every going to truly convince her she was worth something then they had about five and a half years worth of catching up to do.

"I don't believe that." Stef dismissed Callie's shrug. "You were thinking something. I know that. And I know it's not going to be something nice, so tell me what it is." She demanded.

"Loser." Callie said very softly, a trace of belief still in her voice.

"No, that's what Mariana suggested." Stef pointed out. "What were you thinking? Before you asked Mariana?"

"I wasn't." Callie finally said out loud. "I couldn't figure it out." She answered honestly.

"But you didn't think it would be something good." Stef stated, already knowing she as right.

Callie looked away once again. Maybe she and Stef were a lot alike but one thing was certain - Stef possessed a power that she definitely didn't have - the power to see right though her walls and read her mind.

"Honey, I know you can't see it but there is so much about you that's good." Lena said as she gave Callie's hand a slight squeeze. "You are an amazing sister and you care so much about the people around you. You help everyone and even when people aren't the nicest to you you're willing to be there for them when they need you." Lena listed. "Besides all that you are beautiful, talented, smart and brave."

"That you are." Stef agreed wholeheartedly. "You weren't handed the easiest of lives sweetheart, but what you've done with yours; what you've become; is nothing short of amazing."

Callie looked away slightly embarrassed. She wasn't used to getting compliments and she wasn't comfortable with it either. She did like it, it was nice to be told things like this rather than being called a worthless foster kid all the time but still, it took some getting used to.

"LS is not a bad thing baby." Lena assured one last time.

"It better not be." Stef warned playfully. "Because, if you think _Little Me_ is bad then you're in for a whole lot of trouble."

Callie finally smiled. It was bright and genuine and long overdue. "It's not a bad thing." She confirmed, liking being compared to Stef. Of everyone she'd ever met Stef was the one she'd like to be.

"Good." Stef said, satisfied. It was amazing just how much the girl could worry over a couple of letters. She could have avoided all this by just coming and asking them what it meant when she'd heard them use it.

"You know you could have come and talked to us." Lena said, voicing Stef's thoughts.

Callie hesitated slightly, not wanting to hurt them by saying she didn't feel comfortable enough to do that just yet, especially with everything that had happened.

Stef could see Callie's shrugged and gave her an out. "Then she wouldn't be me would she?" She teased lightly. "I'm not exactly one to open up easily."

"No you aren't." Lena agreed with a laugh, realizing that if Callie truly was a little Stef then she really had her work cut out for her.

"Do you have these names for all of us?" Callie questioned curiously.

"No, just you." Lena said. "It just came up in conversation and then stuck."

"It was a way of keeping you close even though you weren't here." Stef admitted. "We really missed you while you were gone."

"Sorry about that." Callie said. She hadn't realized it then but she did now, she'd grown on this family just like they had grown on her.

"Don't be." Stef stopped her. "I think Girls United was good for you." She admitted.

"You do?" Callie asked in surprise."

"I do." Stef confirmed. "It gave you a chance to decide what you really wanted without anyone pressuring you."

Callie thought about what Stef had said and realized that she was right. While Callie was away she'd realized what she was missing and for the first time in her life it wasn't all about being there for Jude. She'd wanted to come back because she wanted this family and she was lucky and immensely thankful that they wanted her as well.

"Breakfast?" Stef questioned as she watched Callie agree with her statement.

"Yeah." Callie smiled as she got up to head downstairs.

"Come here." Stef stopped her by grabbing her arm and pulling her back down for one last hug. "I love having a _Little Me._ " Stef whispered with a smile as the two moms encircled their daughter.

"I like being you You're everything I ever dreamed of being." Callie admitted, surprising both of them. They never expected her to open up like that to them.

Neither mom said anything more, letting Callie have the last words but they did give her an extra tight hug and an extra kiss each before the three of them joined the rest of their kids downstairs for a noisy, lively, fun family breakfast.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

So obviously it wasn't too difficult to guess what LS meant ?ￂﾠThank's for all the reviews and guesses. I've never hand this many for one short chapter before. This was just a rough idea I wanted to put out there. If I had more time I would have tried to come up with something better but it was the fluff I was interested in.

You guy's are amazing readers.

Love,

Junebug.


End file.
